Mobile devices and/or portable radios are essential in emergency situations, but such devices are becoming more complex with configuration settings based on the users and their preferences (e.g. names, aliases, channel scanning priority preferences, alert tones, and the like). In emergency situations, such as a fire, and/or an “immediately dangerous to life and health” (IDLH) environment such devices must be deployed and configured quickly, with the individual user setting downloaded to each of the devices. For example, a crew often arrives at an IDLH environment, and mobile devices from a pool are distributed to the members of the crew. As each crew member logs into a device, the device contacts a remote server to retrieve device settings and data for the crew member. Time is hence generally lost in both assigning and configuring the mobile devices for use by the crew, which can include firefighters, paramedics, police, and the like, which can lead to time lost in deploying the crew into the IDLH environment.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.